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If you do stuff, stuff gets done.......

Friday, September 15, 2017

Freezers and closets and the stuff inside them

Hello everyone,
Our new upright freezer was delivered last week and it's so nice. It really holds a lot and it's so easy to see what is inside.
But this photo doesn't show the top shelf -

See all that orange juice? I bought a bunch with coupons a few months ago. I'm thankful to have a little stockpile of it because Irma pretty much wiped out Florida's orange crop and many orange trees.

The door has lots of storage too.

I've been freezer cooking for years- not full meals but ingredients to go in meals. One ingredient we like is cooked pinto beans. I had pintos stored in the pantry in a gallon jar and I ended up cooking every single one of them this week.

I started out making a big batch of homemade refried beans and cooked pinto beans. I prefer to cook dry beans in crock pots.

They are all stored in plastic containers and labeled- ready to make quick meals

I also cooked up almost 4 pounds of ground beef and seasoned it with my homemade taco seasoning. This will be for tacos or rice bowls kind of like the Chipotle restaurant serves.
And I cooked about 3 pounds of plain chicken breasts to have for recipes like chicken pillows or chicken salad.

all these new containers are in the freezer part of our fridge.
Yes, we like and use lots of ice. I think we are kind of in the minority on this though. On blogs, I've noticed when other homemakers show their freezers, they don't seem to use nearly as much ice as we do. I even make homemade ice since the automatic maker broke for the 4th time. I say that as a joke because I saw a Pinterest pin on how to make your own ice to get ready for hurricane Irma. I had no idea that how to make ice could be a mystery.

At the Dollar Tree, I bought this little set of microwave egg cookers. They are nice for cooking just 1 or 2 eggs. for sure worth $1.

My biggest project this week was cleaning out and organizing my side of our closet.

We have a big walk in closet and its actually our dressing room. We don't have or need dressers in our bedroom as this closet is more than ample space for our clothes.

I took out a big pile of clothes that I was pretty sure I hadn't worn one day.
Then the next day, I folded and bagged them and reconsidered each one.
I kept back this top and did some sewing to make it over. It had elastic at the bottom that I didn't like and ties on the sleeves that just got in the way. So I spent an hour cutting off the ties and the elastic, Then I rehemmed the bottom and sewed up the sleeve bottoms. Now I like it a lot and I think I will wear it often.

This skirt is strange, it is shorter on one side. It has 2 layers and the top layer is sheer.
I don't know if it will work but I've cut apart the skirt and hope to sew up a sheer kimono from the fabric. I kept out a lace overlay tank style top and hope to use that lace for the sleeves. I'll let you all know if it works.

When the closet was straight, I took 4 brown grocery bags full of clothes to the Goodwill.

I found 2 older pair of blue jeans that fit in the back of the closet. When I first saw them, I thought they looked too faded to wear. So I looked up ways to make jeans dark again.
I read that using 1/2 a box of black dye mixed with a full box of navy dye would give a dark navy color to denim as long as the denim was woven with white threads mixed in.
My jeans seem to fit that description so I got the dye.
Then when I started dying them, they didn't look all that faded to begin with but I went ahead and dyed them anyway. The post said if you use just navy dye, your jeans may look purple afterward

I don't have an after photo because I finished them late last night and it was too dark to get a decent photo but both pair do look dark in a shade I like afterward.

Re-doing clothes you already own is a no-lose project. If you don't like the clothes before you make them over, you haven't lost anything but a little time if they don't work out.
New jeans and a new top would of cost at least $50. I spent an hour in time and about $3.50 on the dye. And now I have 2 pair of wearable jeans when I need jeans and a cute top.

My husband has been out of town all week and he just got home. So I am going to sign off here and go visit with him.
Have a good weekend, homemakers

20 comments:

I know what you mean about redoing clothes you already have--I'm amazed at how just looking at a piece of clothing from a different perspective can give you the ideas to create a completely new outfit. I have dyed jeans too--really makes a pair last longer.

Laughing with you about the homemade ice! One of our kids had a friend over a long time ago and I popped popcorn on the stove and he went on and on about the homemade popcorn! I have several tops with elastic around the bottom that I don't wear. Time for me to do the same thing and make them useful because I like them otherwise. Enjoy your weekend!

I love how you re-did your clothes. The top, especially, turned out nice! The jeans are sure to have turned out great. What a great idea. I am soon going to organize my clothes, put away some summer things and get out some fall transition pieces. Its still hot here, but there are some things I can wear during this time of year. I'll be looking at my clothes to see how I can refashion them!

I like your altered top. I like your skirt as is but if you don't wear it it is better to remake it. Your kimono idea is a good one. They are very popular right now. Well done on the freezing of food. The older I get the more value I seem to place on made ahead meals or components of meals. They really do help to save time.

Everyone in my family loves home-made refried beans. In fact, when we have to buy a can, no one is satisfied because they are so much thicker and have little flavor. I usually do them in the crock pot, too.

I love my upright freezer! We did purchase another shelf as I felt some of the spacing between the shelves was more then I needed. I'm glad I did as it made the top two shelves perfect for holding plastic shoebox containers.

We are also a big ice family. Our new frig will be delivered tomorrow and it hold six pounds of ice in the bin. I'm excited about that!

Making over clothes is a huge money saver and like you said you aren't out anything if it doesn't work out. I recently turned Megan to short jeans into capri pants.

I imagine you will be happy to have all of the OJ. I've been wondering if I'll be able afford oranges grown in the US this winter.

Nice freezer and it looks so neat!. Good going on prepping all that food for future meals.I have died jeans many times. I always buy the denim colored dye. Didn't know there was a secret to making ice either! LOL

The refried beans crockpot recipe is my absolute favorite recipe! I make this all the time and have brought it to many functions where everyone wants the recipe!! Your blog is one that I get so many ideas on to save money, especially helpful since my husband has seen a pay decrease this past year.I live in Illinois where so many of us are being taxed to death!! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! Patti

We have an upright freezer in our basement - bought it in 2009. So far, it still works perfectly fine except that it gets frequent ice build-up on the bottom and we're constantly having to defrost it.

I wish we had a walk-in closet. We only have a small standard closet and have to share it. There's not enough room so we also use the closet in what was Phil's bedroom (for Brian's work uniforms and my cardigans and hoodies) and then we have a dresser in that room as well. Out of season clothes are stored in Tote boxes in the basement.

Just wanted to ask if your jeans had any additional wear (white areas) at the knee level than the rest of the jean? I would love to redye my jeans but if it is not a better fix at the knee as well, I'm not sure its worth the $5 for me to try to redye. Thoughts?

Hi Lynn, I ended up dying 3 pairs of jeans. All had faded kness and fading at the hip line. The dye really did cover ALL the white and make them look new again. If you do want to try it, look for powder dye as it is cheaper than liquid.